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“That’s horrible,” my mom says, her voice drifting off as she gazes at the floor. “How could her grandfather treat her that way?”
“He’s just like her dad. He didn’t care about her.”
She blinks a few times, then hurries past me.
“Mom, where are you going?”
“I forgot I had something on the stove.” She races up the stairs.
I’d like to go in Nova’s room and lay beside her, but my mom’s probably right. I should let her sleep.
Going back upstairs, I go to the kitchen to get something to drink. My mom’s not there and the stove’s not on. I walk over to it and hold my hand over the burners. They’re not even hot. Why did my mom lie about having something on the stove?
She’s been acting strange all week because of the fight she’s having with my dad. I don’t know what it’s about, but it must be bad because I’ve never seen them go this long without talking.
“Where’s Mom?” Jenna asks, coming into the kitchen.
“I don’t know. Maybe she went upstairs.”
“We’re supposed to go shopping.” Jenna opens the fridge and sighs. “We never have any food.”
The refrigerator is so packed with stuff you couldn’t fit anything else in it. Nova could eat for a month on just the food that’s in our fridge and yet Jenna complains that there’s nothing to eat. She has no idea how lucky she is to have a full fridge and a pantry full of food. She takes it for granted, not even thinking about people who have nothing.
Nova must’ve lost weight for my mom to make that comment about her being skin and bones. She must’ve seen her body when she helped Nova undress. I’m really surprised my mom’s helping her like this. She saw how sick Nova was and went straight into mom-mode.
Jenna sits on the stool next to the island and swipes through her phone. “We were supposed to leave ten minutes ago. What’s taking her so long?”
“You really need to go shopping? You spent all last weekend shopping, and you shopped on Black Friday with Mom and Grandma.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’re such a boy. There’s no such thing as too much shopping.” She smiles and shows me her phone. “Look at this dress. I’m thinking of getting it for winter formal.”
Walking over to her, I look at the picture on her phone. It’s a long white dress that doesn’t look like anything special. I look at the price. “A thousand dollars? Seriously?”
“It’s not that much. And it’s winter formal. It’s a special occasion.”
“It’s a stupid school dance. You’ll wear that dress for an hour and never wear it again.”
“Why are you so cranky lately? All you do is talk about how much stuff costs. Why do you care? It’s dad’s money, not yours.”
“Because you don’t need that shit. You could take that thousand dollars and help someone. You know how much food a thousand dollars would buy?”
“No, and I don’t care.”
It’s a waste of time trying to get her to care about anyone but herself. She’s always had everything she’s ever wanted. She’s never felt what it’s like to truly need something, like food, or shoes that fit. I kind of feel sorry for her. When you can have whatever you want, it doesn’t feel special to get stuff. There’s no excitement, nothing to look forward to, nothing to work for.
“Mom, there you are,” Jenna says, sounding annoyed. She gets up. “Are we finally leaving?”
“We’re not going,” my mom says, opening the fridge.
Jenna races up to her. “What do you mean we’re not going? You promised me we’d go shopping today.”
“I didn’t promise you. I’m sure you can find something else to do.” My mom pulls out the milk and some other stuff from the top shelf of the fridge. “How could we be out of juice? I just bought some.”
“I threw it out,” Jenna says. “I thought it smelled weird.”
My mom sighs. “Jenna, I told you to stop doing that. There was nothing wrong with the juice.” She puts the stuff back in the fridge and walks over to the counter to get her purse. “I need to run to the store. Easton, do you think she’d like anything else besides the juice?”
“I don’t know. I guess whatever you think she can eat.”
